Songlines & Dreamings

In order to further understand and explore the aboriginal art, culture and history, I found some significant extracts from the book is called 'Songlines and Dreamings'. Authored by Patrick Corbally Stourton. First published in 1996 by Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0 85331 6910.

Following is some excepts from 'Songlines and Dreamings':
'Songlines and Dreamings are not just romantic notions; they are the English words used to describe an integral part of this traditional my thology which dates back to prehistory and spans to the present day.' (p. 9)

'The Aborigines, sometions described as the best-known but least-understood people of the world, are of ever increasing interest to anthropologists and archaeologists. This interest is generated in no small part by the enthusiastic reception and publicity given to Aboriginal paintings by the Western world during the last twenty-five years.' (p.13)

'Dreamings, or Dreamtime, as it is sometimes called, is the English workd used to describe Aboriginal beliefs about the mysterious and intangible process of the creation of the world, and it relates at the same time to the present and the future. Dreamings are also ancestral beings who were born, have lived and died, yet nevertheless still remain present.'

'Dreamings provide a religious ideology which dictates how human beings should interact harmoniously with their surrounding environment. The Dreamings are, in reality, Aboriginal law, a basic universal law, and one which must be followed eternally. It is a law that is shared by all Aboriginal tribes despite different ritual, social or linguistic characteristic and practices.' (p.20)

'As every story or Dreaming relates to a particular feature of the landscape, series of stories create a track across the land connecting these places and the mystical happenings associated with them. These ancient tracks, which are called Songlines, go in all directions crossing the entire continent and initiated men and women can travel along these Songlines and interact with people from other tribes.' (p.21)

It turns out that this is the true meaning of songlines and Dreamings. I was been inflected by the mysterious race. Every aboriginal painting relates to a particular artist's Dreaming, and as a result has a sense of feeling for a specific place. In a sense, the paintings are religious maps of what each artist calls 'my country'. It is worthy fo serious study and exploration for me.